Odessa's Oddities & Curiosities | Week of 7/21/2025

Dear friends,

Bonjour! Get ready for a smattering of Parisian highlights—great art, food, and friends. A happy life indeed!

I’ve created a Paris museum bucket list, partly inspired by Dani’s fabulous recs (thank you!) and partly by a deep dive into the official Wikipedia list of Parisian museums. There are currently 31 on the list. I’ve been to 15. I have 10 days left. The math is... not in my favor.

But alas, I’ve been awash in great art and sublime architecture. Let me tell you about a dreamy morning…

I start my day with a hefty dose of Greek yogurt and muesli with my instant coffee/oat milk blend. I believe I have a mild obsession with Greek yogurt. I’m not sure if it’s these French cows or an absence of protein or calcium in my life, but I crave Greek yogurt like nothing else. God, the texture! I’m working up the courage to try fromage blanc (which I think is Greek-yogurt-like? Please chime in if you’ve tried it).

Then, I map out my route to whichever museum is next on my list.

Barring rain, I bike there with the Lime bike. Let us pause for an Ode to the Lime Bike. As a Mill Valley native, I’ve only really considered mountain biking real biking, thus I’ve sorely underestimated the joy of riding on flat ground— especially with a pedal assist. You are flying! Paris is sketched with bike lines (even traffic lights for the bikes, although no one obeys them). So I fly through Paris, an Airpod in one ear (noise transparency on) listening to music or podcasts. I make my way to my museum of choice, relishing the people-watching that comes from being alone. Then, I meander. I take pictures. I take notes for all of you…

1. Did you know that Salvador Dalí collaborated with Walt Disney on a film about Chronos? It was left unfinished until Disney’s nephew spearheaded an effort to finish the short animated film: Destino. (Musée Dalí)

2. I was astounded by Calculating Empires: A Genealogy of Technology and Power since 1500 by Kate Crawford and Vladan Joler at the Jeu de Paume. But thankfully, you don’t need to be in France to experience it, you can check out their website here. A warning: you’ll want to study this for hours. (Jeu de Paume)

3. Also at the Jeu de Paume, Ars Autopoetica by Sasha Stiles & Technelegy (a personalized AI she’s trained on her own writing). Really, really interesting to see a human, AI poetry collaboration where the AI has already been trained on the poet’s writing. The beginning: “Some poets write poems. / I write poets, a kind of meta verse.” You can read more about the piece here.

4. Did you know there was a women’s Freemason Lodge in Paris in 1738? They disappeared in the 19th century. But I didn’t realize there was so much disagreement in the Freemason community—reminds me of the Jews. A tie between the Freemasons and the Jews is, of course, a very old conspiracy: all powerful qabal & all. Thank you, Museum of Freemasonry.

5. Giacometti was a dear friend of Sartre & De Beauvoir and doodled all over Sartre’s literary journals. (Giacometti Institute)

6. Rabbits are to sailors as Macbeth is to actors. Like the “Scottish play”, sailors would refer to rabbits as “the animal with the big ears” due to their habit of chewing on ropes. (The Maritime Museum)

7. There is a reliquary with the “Holy Umbilical Cord of Christ”…Yes, really. (Musée de Cluny)

8. Niki de Saint Phalle is my new icon. The exhibit at the Grand Palais was spectacular.

Then, I pick up an onigiri and a peach for lunch from Monoprix and bike or Metro back. I go to my beloved, ginormous gym for an hour or so, then settle down to focus on Ayin Press.

I haven’t mentioned that I’ve been working for Ayin Press part-time, and it’s truly been such a joy to join such a brilliant and creative team. I simply recommend everything they publish. Hands down. But I’d hardly be a Public Relations Associate if I didn’t provide specific titles and links. An astounding erasure poem with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, read PROTOCOLS by Daniela Naomi Molnar. An ambitious, world-envisioning work of Indigenous futurism: check out SURVIVA: A Future Ancestral Field Guide by Cannupa Hanska Luger. The forgotten Jewish origins of the Tarot: check out The Torah in the Tarot by Stav Appel. A regendered Torah! Sufism & Hasidism! I could rave about every item in their catalogue.

Some other Parisian oddities & curiosities:

I stumbled into a gallery in the Marais where I discovered the remarkable Laïna Hadengue.

France uses soccer fields for reference instead of football fields i.e. X was 8 soccer fields long.

Before Bastille Day, all the fire stations throw free parties: Bal des Pompiers. I mean, incredible! Think of how much goodwill that engenders in local government and services…I think it would serve us very well in the States. We also had many questions about the logistics: what happens if there’s a fire? Who’s on the Bal des Pompiers committee? How does this affect recruitment?

I’ve had the joy of seeing the Eiffel Tower sparkle a few times, but the best part is not the sparkling (which is pretty incredible), but rather that everyone claps when it ends. Thank you, Eiffel Tower. Thank you for sparkling for us.

I’ve befriended my local crepe guy, who now waves at me whenever I pass his stand. (Does this mean I’m a local???)

And remember how I said I’m listening to podcasts on the bike (and walking and at the gym and in the shower and while I’m cooking), so some recommendations below:

Stop what you’re doing and listen to this episode of The Interview with the Grody-Patinkin family. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about their response to a question about Israel. Mandy quotes his character from Princess Bride: “I have been in the revenge business so long, now that it's over, I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.” Chills, all over.

Back to Maritime history, did you know that we shouldn’t blame the Titanic for the minimal life boats? In fact, at that period, a flimsy life boat on the high seas was perhaps more dangerous than remaining on a slowly sinking boat. A really fascinating account of safety technology at sea from 99% Invisible.

Imagine my surprise when I’m walking through the Marais, listening to a podcast on the Knights Templar on A Short History of…, and the delightful British narrator suddenly says my name. Odessa? Nay, Edessa. The Edessa Siege that was critical during the Crusades…who knew! Then, I’m listening further and he’s describing how the Knights Templar were headquartered in Paris—I pause to do a quick Google. Turns out Rue de Temple in the Marais is not named after the Jewish Temple (the Marais is the Jewish Quarter), but the Knights Templar (!!!) I’d been wandering down that very same street. A cosmic kind of listening, to be sure.

Have you been following this bonkers murder trial in Australia where this lady murdered(?) her in-laws with a poisonous mushroom at dinner?

I loved this review of the new Eve Babitz memoir in the London Review of Books. (“I was always scaring the timid junkies with my radiant molecules. In fact, I was obnoxiously radiant.” I need to be reading more Eve, clearly.)

This interesting Instagram graphic series on how food trends make their way into skincare.

This incredible Substack on how the relationship between 1960s counterculture and the Middle Ages/Medieval period i.e. the birth of the Renaissance Fair: “There, among the jesters and maypoles, the counterculture found a place to imagine new forms of community, rooted firmly outside the reach of nationalism or Cold War conformity. Medievalism, in this light, wasn’t nostalgia. It was insurgency.”

Oh! I’ve been junk journaling — think scrapbooking, but with scraps of trash (receipts, gum wrappers, business cards). And my journal is bursting at this point— I can’t even close it. I find the collage aspect very soothing, however, it does look like I am just hoarding trash all the time. My purse is a haberdashery of receipts and debris. The best finds are museum pamphlets, which I cut up and reconfigure on the page.

In my post-grad future, I am trying to keep up my reading. Make no mistake, I read for fun all the time (at least an hour a day). But I’m not necessarily inclined to reach for the classics, thus I’m embarking on a journey of a specific vein of “Vegetable Books”: books most people read in high school. I’m starting with Moby Dick for two reasons. First, for my novel, it is important I locate my imagination on a boat. Herman Melville himself spent a lot of time on ships, so I find his writing very useful in that regard. Second, I am obsessed with the whaling industry in all its facets. Freakonomics did an excellent series on whaling two years ago.

So far, I find it very funny. And the short chapters are very satisfying. Did you know that Moby Dick was inspired by another whale Melville read about: Mocha Dick?

I have a few more oddities, but this newsletter is already far too long. This newsletter practice has made me lazy in my quest for concision.

But I want to end in honor of poet Andrea Gibson. I’ve been following them since I was eleven and first encountered slam poetry. And for the past couple years, I’ve been subscribed to their newsletter: Things That Don’t Suck. It is hard for me to describe the ways in which Andrea’s words have illuminated my mind, struck deep into my heart. Their death was overwhelming. I will leave you with two things. First, this New York Times ode to Andrea and their kindness. Second, their wife Meg wrote Andrea a letter, published in their newsletter. A warning to grab the tissues now.

May their memory forever be a blessing.

With love & curiosity,

Odessa